64th Congress i 
1st Session f 


SENATE 



SELF-GOVERNMENT IN 
THE TROPICS 


AN ANALYSIS 


OF THE 


POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF THE TEMPERATE 
TOWARD THE TROPIC AND SUBTROPIC ZONES, ESPE¬ 
CIALLY AS AFFECTING THE RELATIONS OF THE 
UNITED STATES TOWARD MEXICO AND 
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 


BY 


SAMUEL L. PARRISH 



PRESENTED BY MR. WADSWORTH 


JANUARY 24, 1916. —Referred to the Committee on Printing 



WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 
1916 











REPORTED BY MR. CHILTON. 


In the Senate of the United States, 

March 23, 1916. 

Resolved, That the manuscript submitted by the Senator from 
New York [Mr. Wadsworth] on January 24, 1916, entitled “ Self- 
Government in the Tropics, 5 ' by Samuel L. Parrish, be printed as a 
Senate document. 

Attest: 


2 


James M. Baker, 

Secretary. 


D. of D. 
APR 15 1916 


SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE TROPICS: 


THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC RELATIONS OF THE TEMPERATE TOWARD THE 
TROPIC AND SUBTROPIC ZONES, ESPECIALLY AS AFFECTING THE RELATIONS 
OF THE UNITED STATES TOWARD MEXICO AND THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 


By Samuel L. Parrish. 


Climatic conditions have not only played a determining part in 
the past economic and political history of the world, but are of 
pressing importance to this country at the present time in connection 
with its attitude toward those parts of the Tropics which are forcing 
themselves upon our attention. 

Take a map of the world, or, better still, a terrestrial globe, and 
girdle the earth with the parallel lines of the thirtieth degree of 
north and south latitude, and you will have contained therein what 
is generally known as the “ heat belt, ? ’ wherein the average mean 
temperature throughout the 3 ^ear is about 68° F. Within this belt, 
inclosed by the lines running 23W north and south, lie the Tropics 
proper, with a much higher mean temperature. On each side, north 
and south, between the twenty-third and the thirtieth parallels, lies 
a zone somewhat loosely called the subtropics. 

Within this subtropical territory climatic conditions are for the 
most part sufficiently similar to those of the Tropics to make such 
generalizations as hereinafter follow approximately applicable. The 
enervating character of the climate, combined with the bounty of 
nature, which, in return for little labor, supplies the limited wants 
of the natives, has from time immemorial within these zones pro¬ 
duced a population essentially inefficient as compared with that of 
the Temperate Zone. Taking, then, the whole heat belt as a starting 
point, an inspection of the map will disclose, speaking broadly, the 
following geographical facts: 

Within this belt, in the Western Hemisphere, will be found most 
of the peninsula of Florida, the West India Islands, Mexico, Central 
America, and the territorial bulk of South America. 

In the Eastern Hemisphere lie practically the whole of Africa, 
the extreme north and south being alone excluded, a large part of 
Arabia, southern Persia, Baluchistan, nearly the whole of India, 
Burmah, Siam, and the Malay Peninsula, French Indo-China, south¬ 
ern China, the islands of the Indian Ocean (including the Philip¬ 
pines and Oceanica), those myriad islands of the Pacific, embracing 
Hawaii. To this vast domain should be added, in the Southern 
Hemisphere, northern Australia. The Philippine Islands lie entirely 
within the Tropics proper. 


3 





4 


SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE TROPICS. 


The theme of this article, namely, the development, in barest out¬ 
line, of four propositions in connection with the future orderly 
progress of this vast area of human activity, will be made more clear 
by constantly keeping the above facts in vieAV. 

* My first proposition is that the economic importance of the Tropics 
in their relations to the Temperate Zone is constantly increasing. To 
the civilized nations of antiquity the Tropics were practically un¬ 
known. As the most important example of the truth of this state¬ 
ment, it may be noted that the Roman Empire, relatively the most 
extensive and powerful political combination known to the ancient 
or modern world, was never successfully extended—outside the nar¬ 
row Valley of the Nile and adjacent territory—to the south of the 
thirtieth degree of north latitude. But with the dawn of the mod¬ 
ern era the whole scene changes. At the end of the fifteenth century 
there was inaugurated for the first time in history the system under 
which we are now living, whereby the Caucasian deliberately set 
before himself the task of dominating, directly or indirectly, every 
corner of the earth’s tropical surface which by its products could 
in any way add to the wealth and prosperity of the Temperate Zone. 
And into this vortex of competition for control the United States has 
at last been unwillingly, though irresistibly, drawn. 

The history of the initial struggle for world supremacy among the 
European nations, though a familiar one and only incidental to the 
development of my argument, is so fascinating that it may well bear 
repeating here. 

At the time of the discovery of America and the passage to the 
Indies around the Cape of Good Hope, or comparatively soon there¬ 
after, there were in the world just five civilized, consolidated, mari¬ 
time powers capable of taking part in the approaching struggle for 
world empire, namely, Spain, Portugal, Holland, France and Eng¬ 
land. 

Germany and Italy, hopelessly divided for the most part into in¬ 
significant and continuously warring little States, were, for the pur¬ 
poses of world aggression, merely geographical expressions, and 
Russia, as known to-day, did not exist. Spain and Portugal were the 
first in the race, and through the genius and daring of their native 
and adopted navigators and adventurers, had, in an incredibly short 
space of time, brought under the flags of their respective countries, 
at least prospectively, the whole of the tropical world in the Western 
and no small part of that in the Eastern Hemisphere. Later on came 
the Dutch, establishing themselves, first as traders and then as 
sovereigns, in the most important of the large islands of the Indian 
Ocean, and there they remain to-day. Strange as it may now seem, 
France and England were the laggards in the race and when they 
woke up to what was going on around them, they discovered that 
most of the undeveloped tropical world, then considered of value, had 
already been appropriated by the three other powers. 

To-day, of the original five maritime European nations, practically 
but three are left—England, France, and Holland—which undertake 
to administer the government of a tropical country from the Tem¬ 
perate Zone. Three others have, however, loomed up within the last 
40 years as factors to be reckoned with in the solution of the colo¬ 
nial problems of the world; Germany, powerful and aggressive, 


SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE TROPICS. 


5 


adding enormously to the complications which must be encountered; 
Italy, a country which must of necessity play a modest part; and 
Russia, who up to the present time has, in view of her geographical 
position, decided to confine her energies to the development of her 
vast Empire by the consolidation of contiguous territory within the 
Temperate Zone. And here it may be noted as a generally accepted 
fact that the desire of Germany to obtain “ a place in the sun or, 
in other words, her ambition to share in, if not become a dominat¬ 
ing factor in, the control of the Tropics is one of the most potent 
of the underlying causes of the present conflict now raging through¬ 
out half the world. 

Returning to the main line of argument, I would like to call at¬ 
tention to the vast increase in the relative trade of the Temperate 
Zone with the Tropics, as shown by the trade statistics published by 
the various Governments. Anyone who will study these figures will 
at once recognize that the first point has been reasonably demon¬ 
strated, namely, the wonderfully increasing commercial importance 
of the Tropics in their economic relations to the Temperate Zone. 

This brings me to my second point, namely, the impossibility of 
colonizing the Tropics by white immigration on a scale of sufficient 
magnitude to affect local industrial conditions: Attention is invited 
to the fact that according to the Philippine Gazetteer, issued by the 
United States War Department some years ago, there were in the city 
of Manila, on May 1, 1901, 2,382 Spaniards out of a total popula¬ 
tion of about 245,000. Manila being the centering point for the 
trading class, it would seem therefore an exaggerated estimate to 
place the resident Spanish population through the islands, after a 
political domination of over 300 years, at over one-half of 1 per cent. 
In the Dutch East Indies the resident Dutch population seems to be 
even less. In India the proportion of resident European civilian 
whites to the whole population is probably considerably less than 
one-tenth of 1 per cent. In Venezuela, the Encyclopedia Britannica 
gives a pure Caucasian population of about 1 per cent. In Jamaica 
it would appear to be about 2 per cent. In Mexico, owing to climatic 
conditions resulting from the lofty tableland formation, about 15 
per cent. In subtropical South Africa, this tableland formation, 
combined with the discovery of gold and precious stones, must also 
be noted as a condition permitting and inviting development of the 
country by the presence of the white man in large numbers. Speak¬ 
ing then in a general way, it would seem that the above figures fully 
sustain the second point, namely, the impossibility of colonizing the 
Tropics by white immigration. Experience has taught the white 
man that he can not do continuous manual labor under the usual con¬ 
ditions prevailing in tropical countries, and therefore he avoids 
them. 

My third point is that experience has shown that stable self-gov¬ 
ernment, carrying with it the impartial administration of justice and 
the equal protection of the law to all classes of inhabitants, is impos¬ 
sible in the Tropics if left in the hands of an indigenous population 
without supervision, 

In an examination of governmental conditions, which from time 
immemorial have existed in the Tropics, I can find no instance of 
an orderly self-government, with representative institutions, evolved 


6 


SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE TROPICS. 


from the people themselves. Nor, on the other hand, have the 
efforts made by England in recent times to introduce responsible 
self-government in her tropical dependencies given any encourage¬ 
ment that the issue of such experiments will prove successful. The 
mental, moral, and economic factors are all at variance with the 
conditions required for an orderly self-governing community. Of 
the millions of men who now occupy, and of the untold millions, who. 
since recorded time, have been the indigenous inhabitants of the 
Tropics, I think it may safely be said that no one commanding figure, 
judged by world standards, has ever emerged from the mass to chal¬ 
lenge the admiration of the world as a benefactor of mankind. 

The one exception that occurs to me, somewhat ominous though it 
be, is Mohammed, born just under the Tropic of Cancer. What his 
influence for good or evil may have been or now is, I can not at 
present attempt to inquire. Gautama was born at the foot of the 
Himalaya Mountains. Confucius was the product of the Temperate 
Zone. 

But in art and science, literature and law, in constructive states¬ 
manship, and in the scientific regulation of the relations of men 
toward each other in all the complexities which go to make up what 
is known as civilized society, we must look, with two or three inter¬ 
esting primitive exceptions in the subtropics, to the inhabitants of 
the Temperate Zone alone for the accomplishment of valuable results. 

For the creation of a self-governing community, in which the rights 
of all classes shall be respected, I conceive there are necessary at least 
four precedent conditions: First, a general recognition of the dignity 
of manual labor; second, the existence of an intelligent public opin¬ 
ion, as a court of final appeal, whose mandate must be obeyed; third, 
a willingness on the part of the minority to submit without question 
to the will of the majority as legally expressed at the polls; and 
fourth, the existence of an incorruptible judiciary to impartially ad¬ 
minister the law in the interest of the weak no less than in that of the 
strong. 

The limits of this journal will not permit a detailed examination 
into these four subpropositions, but I submit that not even the most 
ardent advocate of self-government in the Philippine Islands can 
successfully maintain that any of these precedent conditions, either 
separately or in combination, now exist, or, within any appreciable 
time ? are likely to exist among the indigenous inhabitants of that 
tropical dependency of the United States. Orderly self-government 
never came as a gift from above. 

The fourth and last proposition which I have undertaken to de¬ 
velop is, that controlling economic conditions, external and internal, 
no less than moral obligation, will increasingly compel the United 
States, as potentially, if not actually, the most powerful of the civil¬ 
ized nations, to bear its full share in the system of dependent tropi¬ 
cal government and supervision now recognized as an international 
factor of unquestioned and growing importance. Of this question 
it may be said that since our Civil War none more vital has con¬ 
fronted the American people, and in the course of its solution may 
well be found practically most of the future danger points which 
must ever beset a progressive nation in the conduct of its political 
relations with the other nations of the world. 


SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE TROPICS. 


7 


In considering broadly the development of interracial relations 
between the dominant and inferior races during the past century, 
one can not but be impressed by the fact that the current has been 
distinctly in the direction of altruism, so far at least as Great Britain 
and the United States are concerned, and that, too, notwithstanding 
the recent outbreak of savage war among the dominant races who 
themselves inhabit the Temperate Zone. 

Slavery has been abolished throughout Christendom, and oppres¬ 
sion, injustice, and internecine strife have, more and more, been giv¬ 
ing place to orderly government throughout the tropical dependencies 
ruled from the Temperate Zone. 

Warren Hastings would be an anachronism in the India of to-day. 
while venal Spanish colonial governors in Cuba, Porto Pico, and 
the Philippines already seem to belong to a by-gone age. 

Powerful as was the factor of self-protection in our late war with 
Spain, a sense of moral obligation alone made that war popular. 

But in considering* the moral we must not forget the economic 
side of the question. 

As we note the progress of society through its various stages of 
evolution, there is nothing more striking than the constantly in¬ 
creasing importance, during the past 50 years, of the economic phase 
of international relations. 

But the source of this superabundant energy and resultant ac¬ 
complishment has been in the Temperate Zone, and now, as never 
before, it seeks outlets in the farthest corners of the earth. With 
the vast increase in the wealth of the dominant races, an ever- 
increasing demand is being made upon every heretofore outlying 
tropical province of the world to furnish whatever it can best pro¬ 
duce, and receive in return therefor such products of the Temperate 
Zone as may be suited to its requirements. 

And if for any reason this production and consumption are re¬ 
tarded by internal disorder, or conditions that science or skill can 
remedy, then these northern cormorants for economic results insist 
upon furnishing the remedy. The recent disturbance in the sisal- 
hemp district of Yucatan which threatened the binding twine in¬ 
dustry of the United States, and therefore the American farmer, 
would seem to have stirred the present administration to greater 
activity (if we except the incident of the failure to salute the flag) 
than anything else that has happened in Mexico for the past two 
years. 

To bring order out of chaos for the purpose of permitting the 
normal economic development of a tropical island at our very doors 
was at least one of the avowed objects of our late War with Spain. 

In the train of that war followed, in natural sequence, our occupa¬ 
tion of the Philippine Islands, for in the redistribution of territory 
and spheres of influence, since the beginning of the decay of Spain’s 
colonial empire, both in the Temperate and Tropic Zones, the United 
States has been continuously, since the foundation of our Govern¬ 
ment, Spain’s actual and logical heir. Cuba. Porto Rico, and the 
Philippines are but corollaries of Florida and the original Spanish 
North American territory which came to us by forced cession after 
the Mexican War. 

To what lengths the combination of economic necessity and moral 
obligation may yet compel the United States to go, no one may with 


8 


SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE TROPICS. 


safety predict, but I submit that we can not stand still. With the 
completion of the Isthmian Canal and the resultant increase in 
tropical trade, new problems arise. 

The upholding of a political idea, labelled republican, as in Mex¬ 
ico. but in reality anarchic or despotic, and which is not only prac¬ 
tically barren of beneficial results, but stands rather as a menace to 
the economic advancement of the world, will, I am inclined to be¬ 
lieve, appeal less and less to the practical side of the American 
character. When the present situation is more fully realized, we 
may well come to the parting of the ways, and the question that 
may yet divide our own political parties will be our attitude toward 
the countries to the south of us in the Western Hemisphere. What 
that attitude may be, will, I think, depend largely, so far as the ap¬ 
proximate future is concerned, upon the success or failure of our 
present experiment in the Philippine Islands. 

Should results falsify the prophets of evil who have declared that 
the government of a tropical dependency is beyond the legitimate 
sphere of a democratic republic, then I believe we will venture still 
further into the troubled waters of tropical supervision, following 
in the footsteps of England. 

As between such a solution and the introduction of European 
ascendency in those countries, should such an alternative be pre¬ 
sented, as well it may be, I assume that the American people would 
not long hesitate. 

Should we in the future be compelled to assume toward Mexico, 
as well we may, the same relation we have maintained toward Cuba 
since the Spanish War, there can be little question but that this un¬ 
fortunate so-called republic would at once become a much more de¬ 
sirable member of the family of nations, both from a domestic and 
foreign standpoint, than it has ever been in its whole history. That 
a movement in that direction should have been so long delayed can 
be nothing but a source of mortification to a great majority of the 
American people. 

That the commanding influence of the Anglo-Saxon in controlling 
the policies of the world has been constantly on the increase during 
the past 250 years is a matter of common knowledge. 

Whether that supremacy is to be successfully challenged and set 
aside by Germany as the result of the war now being waged in 
Europe remains to be seen. It would certainly be a sad day for the 
many tropical dependencies of the British Empire were the practices 
of the rigid drillmasters of Germany to be substituted for the benefi¬ 
cent methods of Great Britain in dealing with the natives of India 
and the innumerable islands of the Tropic sea now under British 
supervision or control. 

But, coming now to the concrete problem of the relations of the 
United States toward the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands, I 
submit that the Filipinos, for the purpose of considering those rela¬ 
tions, may be divided into the four following classes: 

First. A handful of idealists, much given to copious quotations, 
largely from French authors. These quotations deal, for the most 
part, with the abstract principles of liberty. 

Second. The mute, densely ignorant, overwhelming majority, com¬ 
posed of all the different races speaking diverse languages, whose 


SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE TROPICS. 


9 


only idea of government now is, and always has been, obedience to 
those who have been set to rule over them by some higher power. 

Third. A somewhat wavering, partially educated, small minority, 
easily influenced, and without any very definite principles to guide 
their political conduct. 

T ourth. A small group of educated men who have both the intelli¬ 
gence and the will to make their influence for good powerfully felt 
among their countrymen. From this class have come the men whose 
aid and support must have been invaluable to the Taft Commission 
and its successors in their arduous labors for the improvement of 
existing conditions. That this class has been much discouraged by 
the methods of the present administration can hardly be doubted. 

Of the idealists it may be said that they exist in all communities, 
and, though often valuable members of society, they are not likely to 
be men of much weight in the daily conduct of public affairs. In 
periods of acute unrest and widespread popular discontent, when 
some great social upheaval is impending, they are most likely to play 
an important part. Men of this stamp were conspicuous at the time 
of the French Revolution. 

To the second class, namely, the ignorant mass, must be mainly 
directed our efforts to ameliorate present conditions throughout the 
islands. 

To give some idea of this ignorance, it may be noted that with a 
property qualification of $250, or an annual tax of not less than $15, 
or a knowledge of the Spanish or English language, or the 
holding of some municipal office under Spanish rule, the num¬ 
ber of qualified voters would be somewhat less than 2 per cent of the 
population, though the introduction of public schools, wherein the 
English language is taught, has doubtless of late somewhat increased 
this proportion. 

From the small third class, who may be termed the opportunists, 
we must, for the most part, in conjunction with men taken from the 
fourth class, select those to whom shall be confided, under American 
control, the practical details of local government. 

Each nation which has heretofore attempted tropical dependent 
colonial government has insisted upon conducting its own experi¬ 
ments in its own way, and I submit that the sooner we learn the 
various lessons in store for us the sooner will we arrive at a satis¬ 
factory conclusion as to the wisest course to pursue. 

“ The English brain and the Egyptian hand ” was Lord Cromer’s 
guiding maxim in the regeneration of Egypt during the nearly 30 
years of his wonderfully successful administration of the affairs of 
that country, and so I believe it will be found that, for an indefinite 
period in the future, the ultimately responsible officers of the Phil¬ 
ippine ship of state must be American, if the crew, no less than the 
officers, are to safely continue the voyage so auspiciously begun. 
But to fit them for their responsibilities the officers must be trained, 
and, following in the footsteps of England, we must have a competi¬ 
tive, stable, high-salaried and absolutely nonpolitical colonial civil 
service if we are to succeed. When the novelty is over, high salaries 
and a recognized progressive career will alone enable us to obtain 
the grade of men necessary for the work we have undertaken in the 
Tropics. 


10 


SELF-GOVERNMENT IN THE TROPICS. 


In this article I have sketched, if only in shadowy outline, some at 
least of the relations which I conceive to exist between the Temper¬ 
ate and the Tropic Zones. 

That the development of these relations upon right lines in the 
future must be a matter of the deepest importance and concern to the 
American people goes without saying. 

Whether the outcome of the present struggle in Europe for world 
supremacy, whatever it may be, will tend to accentuate or diminish 
that importance is a question for the American people themselves to 
determine. 

Southampton, Long Island, December 20, 1915. 

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